Tikvah

Two men named Tikvah appear in the Old Testament — one in the genealogy attached to the prophetess Huldah, the other among those who took a stand during Ezra's reform.

Father of Shallum, Huldah's Husband

When Josiah's officials are sent to consult a prophet about the rediscovered book of the law, the woman they go to is identified by her husband and his fathers: "So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter); and they communed with her" (2 Kgs 22:14).

The Chronicler records the same delegation but with two of the names rendered differently in UPDV — Tikvah's parallel is given as "Tokhath," and Harhas as "Hasrah": "So Hilkiah, and those whom the king [had commanded], went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter); and they spoke to her to that effect" (2 Chr 34:22). The two passages refer to the same family, with the later text using a variant form of the same name.

Father of Jahzeiah, in Ezra's Reform

A second Tikvah belongs to the post-exilic period. When Ezra is dealing with the men who had married foreign wives, the proceedings are not unanimous: "Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah stood up against this [matter]: and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them" (Ezra 10:15). The exact nature of the opposition is not detailed, but Tikvah is fixed in the record as the father of one of the few men who pushed back against the reform.